Spalding-based health and wellbeing charity Tonic Health has been handed a cash boost to expand both its dementia and mental health services.

Funded through the NHS Managed Care Network, Tonic Health was successful with both projects, receiving almost £45,000.

The first project builds on two years of dementia service delivery from Tonic Health and further expands the services the charity is able to offer.

The popular weekly Dementia Café, Movement 4Memory, will continue to run every Wednesday from 1.30pm to 3.30pm and will offer gentle exercise, stimulating activities and refreshments and is available to people with dementia and their carer/family members.

The FOCUS project, which runs on a fortnightly basis on Tuesdays, from 10am to 4pm, is for people with early onset dementia or those who have recently been diagnosed – and this project is just for this person – allowing the carer some valuable time off.

The group has been full, with a waiting list, for some time, but this funding has given Tonic Health the opportunity to form a second group which will run alternate Tuesdays to the first group.

The funding will also pay for Joy Hallam to become the Tonic Health dementia care in Spalding project co-ordinator.

One of her tasks will be to work towards Spalding becoming a dementia friendly town, like local neighbours Bourne.

The second project to be funded is the Safe Places Mental Health initiative. Having started just one year ago, the project has grown from strength to strength and surpassed the funding targets set at inception by almost 300 per cent.

The Tuesday afternoon group will continue to meet from 4.30pm to 6pm, and the business awareness training sessions in mental health and suicide awareness will also continue to run throughout the year.

An addition to these initiatives is the one-to-one peer support sessions which will allow people to book an appointment and speak to a person on a one-to-one basis who has experience of living with a mental health condition.

This is not a replacement for NHS front line services but an additional support network for those who need some advice/guidance/someone to speak to, which they can access within a couple of days of getting in touch, rather than a long waiting list.

There is a team of peer support workers who will deliver this service, allowing people to chose which one they feel would be more appropriate for their situation.

To register your place on any of the above projects, or to find out more, call Tonic Health on 01775 725059 or visit www.tonic-health.co.uk